Assets under management and net new money

Swiss private banks are suffering from a low growth dynamic, with industry assets under management being only slightly above 2019 levels. NNM was low last year, not helped by a strengthening Swiss Franc. NNM outflows took place at 27 banks last year.

Many banks hired relationship managers from UBS and Credit Suisse in an effort to boost NNM. Due to gardening leave and onboarding, is too early to tell how successful this approach may be and whether it is sufficient to help turn around banks’ fortunes.

Christian Hintermann

Partner, Financial Services

KPMG Switzerland

Assets under management (AuM) remain stagnant

AuM development

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Markets performed much better in 2023 following an extremely negative 2022. Much of the potential benefit was offset by the appreciation of the Swiss Franc against major currencies such as the USD and EUR. AuM did grow at 62% of banks in 2023, however, to reach CHF 2,955bn. This is still below the CHF 3,259bn at the end of 2021, however.

Industry AuM remains only slightly above 2019 levels, with small and medium banks being about 10% higher. While small and medium banks also grew since 2019 through M&A the large banks mainly engaged in selling subsidiaries in wealth management, with M&A therefore generating an overall negative impact on their AuM.

Median net new money (NNM) continues to fall

Median NNM growth

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Median NNM fell for the second consecutive year, with 58% of banks experiencing a drop. In total, 27 banks experienced NNM outflows, with three medium and two small banks seeing more than 10%. Only 12 banks managed to achieve NNM in excess of 5%.

Large banks were able to improve after a relatively weak 2022, but were still significantly behind 2019-2021 levels. They grew NNM by 2.8% in 2023, which is less than the 3-6% target some of the large banks had communicated.